Ann: TNG appoints Gresham for Mount Peake funding-TNG.AX, page-27

Gresham was established in 1985 by James Graham and Graham Rich (retired in 2011) and is owned by its senior executives along with its Foundation Co-investor, Wesfarmers Limited.

On the Wesfarmers Site :
http://www.wesfarmers.com.au/our-businesses/other-businesses
Gresham Partners : Wesfarmers has a 50 per cent interest in Gresham Partners Group Limited, the holding company for the Gresham Partners operations. Gresham is a leading independent financial services business focused primarily on the provision of financial advisory services, structured finance, and property financing and funds management.

Why TNG hasn't garnered any Australian interest from those with the capacity to do so, rather than looking like overseas finance will be necessary for Mt Peake & refinery to get off the ground, has been a mystery to me for a long time.

It's not as if the big Australian's don't know or don't care about these industries.
Consider BHP/Iluka's investment in Metalysis - advanced Titanium powder process
Mr & Mrs Brown as Major investors & history with Twiggy/FMG - the latter indicating last year he was looking to diversify (seeking stranded/undervalued assets) & more recently has seen a rapid recovery in FMG's value.
Rio's Titanium dioxide investments.

Also
The exploration licences in Todd River Resources - this company positioned itself to be NT centric.
The CSIRO integral in TIVAN's development

Every part of this story screams, invest in a smart Australian company, kick off a NT mining boom with diverse resources not just coal & iron ore, capitalize on Australian Scientific know how & grow the economy & workforce in the North of Australia.

I've no doubt TNG will be in the news once they raise the finance they need & it will be a story that will continue to make the news for years to come.
Certainly a good bet, were Wesfarmers looking to diversify away from resources others are divesting from or going broke from operating.
I'm still waiting for the day you can buy solar panels through Bunnings, or we see every Bunnings/Coles with solar PV on their roofs. More to the point, strategically, Energy Storage is likely to see exponential growth over the next few years.
Bunnings/Coles real estate alone would be a logical & significant place for larger VRFB batteries.
A strategic investment in a company likely to disrupt the cost of highly refined Vanadium for use in VRFB's, should be attractive to Wesfarmers.

Wonder if they can see that too?

As excited as I get about Aussies actually leading the pack that will enable cost effective disruptive technologies (Titanium printing, VRFBs) and new/advanced refining processes, because we are truly a smart lot....
A reality check....
Unfortunately, if the past is anything to go by, when we had developed the leading technologies in Solar PV, we completely ignored the potential or undermined it at every turn.

My hope is that we don't do that here.